Will Duke/Alexander Stalmann

Will Duke's computer generated video, entitled Project 2501, deals with the seductive nature of technology and the Zen-like beauty of the industrial aesthetic, as well as the feelings that arise from our contemplation of complete submission to such ideas. Sleek metal piping slinks its way around an empty industrial building – precise whirring and whooshing sounds suggesting that this change is perhaps inevitable – until the structure is cocooned… at which point the shiny tendrils rapidly recede, only for the process to begin again after a short, tense lull. This is an engaging work which cuts to the heart of our fascination with the power of technology; articulating the dull nausea that accompanies humanity's complicity in its own extinction. What could have been a mere exercise in terror is here instilled with something that touches us on a much deeper level. Alexander Stalmann creates an ambiguous tent-like structure from mundane items such as polythene, wood, lights and suspicious-looking white powder. He charges this makeshift landscape with an otherworldly significance, drawing our attention to the beautiful alchemy of the creative process itself. One of the finest instalments of the New Work Scotland program in a while. [Jay Shukla]